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Have had a very bad week...trying to get my mind off of things so did the one thing I have left that still brings me satisfaction. So, before my family and I end up homeless, figured I'd share this with you. I took ' You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone' and by messing around with the cut in Adobe Audition, this is the result.


https://soundcloud.com/billy-castillo-1/brian-wilsons-backups-you-need

As you can hear, Brian's on the high 'AHHHS' and the answering 'She Don't Know It', vocally.

No copyright infringement intended; this is for study purposes only. I'll be uploading 'Marcella' and 'He Come Down' while I still have internet so it won't be too long.

Very cool man, I hope things get better before the holiday... Let us know if we can help out!

Barring a winning lottery ticket, or the mortgage company changing their mind, or being able to come up with the  back payment on the mortgage, we're not having a Christmas this year.

On a lighter side, here's 'He Come Down'. I didn't realize until doing this tonight that the 'Yes I Believe' part was Brian! That makes the other part more obvious. What gives it away is the last part of it, where he sings 'tell...'

https://soundcloud.com/billy-castillo-1/brian-wilson-he-come-down

I wonder if Brian chose to work on "he come down" because its such an odd song. :lol

HCD and 'Mess of Help' were Brian's babies, so to speak.  I don't know how much work he did on 'Marcella', but I don't think it was quite as much as on these two songs. I could be wrong, though.

Thanks for that! I think "Mess of Help" kicks so much ass, and it's cool to hear these extra things ^_^ That being said, it makes me remember how I've never been entirely happy with the mix. In addition to Brian's vocal work, I'd love to have Blondie's contributions to the end of the chorus a little louder in the mix, he's putting in such a stellar, energetic performance and yet you really have to strain to hear him. Also, I'll probably get shat on by purists for thinking this, but I've always thought the clashy percussion playing in the "she don't know" section would sound unbelievably cool if it were ping-ponged between the right and left channel.

Working on 'Marcella' right now. The high 'ahhs' in the background are NOT Brian...they're Bruce. It sounds like Brian is doubling Carl on the 'hey yeah Marcella' part but I'm having a hard time isolating it.

edit

Yep...Brian is singing one of the backup parts on 'hey yeah marcella'.

Here's 'Marcella'. Isolating Brian was extremely difficult, as the original was rather dense, and to be honest I couldn't do it the way I wanted to. However, here's him doing the 'hey yeah Marcella' part with Carl. The ending is a revelation, as I managed to remove everyone but Brian, Mike, and Al. Brian's doing the 'Marcella hey' part, and Al is doing the 'Doobie doobie doo-ooo' part.


https://soundcloud.com/billy-castillo-1/marcella-backups

Is soundcloud not working for anyone else? Tried two different browsers, couldn't play anything.

Clear your cache and try again. Works fine for me!

Have verified these are the only three songs Brian is on on So Tough. He is NOT on Cuddle Up at all.

As far as Holland goes, he is just on Funky Pretty and California. Oh, and the Fairy Tale, if that counts. He is not on Steamboat, despite the popular rumor.

I'm not sure if you're only talking vocally, but Stephen Desper said that Brian is playing piano on "Sail On, Sailor". However, it was also reported that Carl, Blondie and Ricky put the entire track together with Brian helping "produce" over the phone. So who knows. AGD?

Also interesting thought: are there eight Beach Boys on "Marcella"? Let's see, at the least you got Brian, Carl, Mike, Al, Bruce, Blondie, and Ricky. Is Dennis on there anywhere? If so that'd be eight. That would probably be a record for most Beach Boys on a tune. Too bad Dave wasn't nearby during the sessions. His style actually might've worked with this kinda tune. I suppose it's possible that there is seven or eight Beach Boys on "Mess of Help" as well. Although I'm really not sure on that.

Yeah, I was referring to vocally. Instrumentally, well, sh*t, there's a whole 'nother can of worms (which I don't dig, quite frankly) there.

That said, Brian's piano playing is on both Mess  and HCD...

Alt mix of Mess of Help

https://soundcloud.com/billy-castillo-1/you-need-a-mess-of-help-to

On that alt mix I posted, if you turn the volume up you can hear bleed-through of an apparently wiped vocal at about 0:26-0:28...and it sounds like it POSSIBLY could be Brian. Could that be the original lead? Listen to it on headphones and turn it up. I hear something definitely. It is bleed-through, and that doesn't exist on any other track that I know of as that is during an instrumental part, right behind that guitar part.

Edit

Sure enough...it's someone singing. But what?!

You can hear Brian's part on the fade-out clearly... 'she don't know it baby/ they don't know it', with the second part said with a cool jive/jazz accent at about 1:12.

VERY interesting stuff. How are you achieving the isolation? Way back in the day ('72) when I had a particularly nifty receiver with a ton of knobs, you could play left/right channel only and port that into both speakers/headphones. Doing that revealed the insane level of complexity in the mix on "Mess of Help," with left channel (IIRC) being strings, banjo, percussion and Carl's lead, with the right channel carrying lead guitar, drums, and what sounded like Brian or Brian/Carl doubled doing the funky second lead (including the grunts and the "hos"). The piano and backing vocals were spread across both tracks pretty much equally. Never did get another receiver that permitted that type of separation.

Man, you should just remix it and bring up the high backing vocals--they are just effin' KILLER on that first snippet--you must be maxin' the treble or something to get that. Listening to this makes me think that if BW put his mind to it he could still make a rocked-out record that would blow people's minds. And how amazing would THAT be for a 70-year old who was never considered all that interested in rock'n'roll?

Holy moly, do I love this track...it is SO counterintuitively brilliant! Thanks so much! MORE, please!!!

Thank you kindly...glad you enjoyed it! The time period from 1969- 1973 happens to be my favorite Brian vocal period, and I wish he had done more. Finding out how much more involved he was on So Tough than popularly realized was a revelation.  These two songs were Brian masterpieces, and leads me to wonder what Brian would've evolved to if he would have gotten his life on track by that point.

As far as what I did, I did a mixture of things. I did a mono fold-down at  points (as on Mess of Help Brian was heavier on the left channel vs the right),. Any EQ-ing was done with a plug-in for Adobe Audition called 'Modern Deep Purple'. In some cases, I captured Carl's voice in the noise reduction profile, then ran noise reduction. Ended up working like a charm...that's how only Brian, Carl, and Al were left on the tag of Marcella.

Gives me an idea to do a remix project...

great cut of Stevie on there!

Thankya!

More Great work! 8)

Awesome work Billy!  ;D I hear something strange in the alt. mix of Mess of Help. It sounds like there is a second voice, but singing totally different lyrics than what you hear on the "main" vocal. Did that make sense?

Neat Billy. Interesting that Brian was singing deeper (at times) but without the rasp or any real damage.  Very good work.